Kids and Narcissism

A new study says the trait of narcissism may be due to the way you are brought up as a child. Parents who believe their kids are better and deserve more may be passing this point of view onto their young kids.

The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that there was a direct connection between parents who overvalue their children and children who are narcissistic.

Researchers interviewed 565 children between the ages of 7-12 and their parents every six months over an 18-month period. Age 8 is believed to be the time in a child’s life where they begin to compare themselves with their peers. The researchers took the children’s response to 10 items on the Childhood Narcissism Scale.

The researchers would also ask the children’s parents questions from the parental overvaluation scale. The researchers found that if parents overvalued their kids, the higher the kids’ narcissistic response over the period of the tests.

They also found that increased parental warmth was associated with high self-esteem in kids, but parental overvaluation was not associated with increased self-esteem.

There is also good evidence that genetics may play a role in narcissism in individuals.

Remember:

Loving your child is a good thing. People can change. Just because these children are narcissistic at one time, does not mean they will be forever.

There is a distinction in overvaluing and just showing warmth to your child. Try to draw the distinction between the two when dealing with your children.